DEC invented spam 30 years ago

1 May 2008 | 13:13 BST

By Tony Dennis

Now it's the mobile phone's turn to suffer

WOULD YOU believe that spam invented 30 years ago this Saturday (3rd May) by DEC, aka HP?

The general consensus of opinion is that somebody at the Digital Equipment Company – which was subsequently famously acquired by Compaq then HP – sent out the first spam - an advert for its latest range of mini computers.

The spam read: "DIGITAL WILL BE GIVING A PRODUCT PRESENTATION OF THE NEWEST MEMBERS OF THE DECSYSTEM-20 FAMILY; THE DECSYSTEM-2020, 2020T, 2060, AND 2060T. "

The full text has been blogged here.

Whoever was the culprit, he or she wasn't too adept at using the 'Sndmsg' email facility as not all the intended 393 targets received the spam since their email addresses overflowed into the body of the text.

That didn't stop an uproar. Many angry recipients deemed it an illegal use of Arpanet which, as well all know, was the forerunner of today's internet.

Mobile phone security specialist – Adaptive Mobile – has marked the occasion by suggesting spammers are moving to mobile phones.

A YouGov report estimated that in the UK an astonishing two thirds of mobile users have already been victims of mobile spam or phishing attacks.

In China it is worse. Adaptive Mobile's CEO, Lorcan Burke, says that, "the average [Chinese] mobile user receives six to ten spam messages per day."

Globally over 80 per cent of mobile phone users have received at least one spam on their phone, according to the ITU. µ

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